Trying to tell this one in story as much as possible, but sometimes that fails so we'll go to meta material.
Let's talk about the Convention.
As stated above, the Convention is Gernsback-2's equivalent of Infinity Unlimited and/or the Centrum Interworld Service. It was formed primarily to keep interdimensional travel technology from becoming hidden or militarized, and to this end it has mostly succeeded. As the official sole operator of sidestep devices the Convention sits in an odd position between corporation, NGO and nation-state of its own. Officially the Convention is answerable to the United Nations Security Council, and eight times out of ten Director Curtis will actually follow their lead.
The Convention is run by the Director and the Operating Committee (or ConCom), which has executive oversight on all activities. Beneath them are the major divisions. These include (but are not limited to):
* Convention Security (C-Sec), equivalent to the Infinity I-Cops with much the same mandate: to protect the homeline from threats and protect the other worldlines from homeliners behaving badly.
* Explorer Corps, which handles the discovery and initial scouting of new worldlines.
* Research & Development, which handles figuring out new toys and distributes them to the world.
* Special Circumstances, a motley crew which handles problems C-Sec can't, made up of the best, the brightest, the oldest and the most treacherous of the Corps and C-Sec.
The Convention's primary headquarters is the DragonCon Tower, a skyscraper-slash-convention center in the heart of Atlanta. The Director and ConCom)work out of the tower, and the major division directors all have offices there. Interworld operations largely happen at the command center just outside of Dulce, New Mexico. As of late (2015 on) the frequency of high-tech, spacefaring worldlines discovered has spurred construction of an orbital base for sidestepping spacecraft. The Stella Via Station was officially online New Years Day 2019 and plays host to high-security research facilities as well as the Convention's small space navy.
Advances and innovations brought back from the multiverse are licensed by the Convention for not a whole lot, but considering the ubiquity of things like fusion power, advanced electronics, bionics, medical treatments etc. it all adds up to make the Convention the richest non-profit on the planet. Everything the Convention takes in is plowed back into operating capital or used to expand Convention operations elsewhere.
ETA: some more meta.
The Fiction Problem: One thing that needs addressing is the whole fiction problem. This isn’t a huge issue if we were going to keep this assigned to just plain alternate worlds, but obviously that’s… probably a non-starter. So, when (not if, but when) the Fen start visiting and meddling in other fictional worlds, how do we handle it?
Meta-omniscience is a story killer; it leads to characters who know everything and get more’n a little smug about it, which can be difficult to read even if you like the characters. So if fictional worlds get involved, what happens when Fen-Prime know about them? My honest opinion would be to rewrite Fen reality a little bit, so the list of popular fiction is different. Think of it like Drunkard’s Walk; would DW2 have been honestly as good if Doug had been sufficiently self-aware to *know* he’s in Bubblegum Crisis, for example?
So, for example if we travel to a Star Trek continuity the Fen would instead be big Galaxy Quest boosters, or the galaxy far far away that the Fen know more closely resembles the early drafts of Star Wars instead of the juggernaut we all know OOC. Various universes can be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, of course. It should depend on the story.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Let's talk about the Convention.
As stated above, the Convention is Gernsback-2's equivalent of Infinity Unlimited and/or the Centrum Interworld Service. It was formed primarily to keep interdimensional travel technology from becoming hidden or militarized, and to this end it has mostly succeeded. As the official sole operator of sidestep devices the Convention sits in an odd position between corporation, NGO and nation-state of its own. Officially the Convention is answerable to the United Nations Security Council, and eight times out of ten Director Curtis will actually follow their lead.
The Convention is run by the Director and the Operating Committee (or ConCom), which has executive oversight on all activities. Beneath them are the major divisions. These include (but are not limited to):
* Convention Security (C-Sec), equivalent to the Infinity I-Cops with much the same mandate: to protect the homeline from threats and protect the other worldlines from homeliners behaving badly.
* Explorer Corps, which handles the discovery and initial scouting of new worldlines.
* Research & Development, which handles figuring out new toys and distributes them to the world.
* Special Circumstances, a motley crew which handles problems C-Sec can't, made up of the best, the brightest, the oldest and the most treacherous of the Corps and C-Sec.
The Convention's primary headquarters is the DragonCon Tower, a skyscraper-slash-convention center in the heart of Atlanta. The Director and ConCom)work out of the tower, and the major division directors all have offices there. Interworld operations largely happen at the command center just outside of Dulce, New Mexico. As of late (2015 on) the frequency of high-tech, spacefaring worldlines discovered has spurred construction of an orbital base for sidestepping spacecraft. The Stella Via Station was officially online New Years Day 2019 and plays host to high-security research facilities as well as the Convention's small space navy.
Advances and innovations brought back from the multiverse are licensed by the Convention for not a whole lot, but considering the ubiquity of things like fusion power, advanced electronics, bionics, medical treatments etc. it all adds up to make the Convention the richest non-profit on the planet. Everything the Convention takes in is plowed back into operating capital or used to expand Convention operations elsewhere.
Quote:Stella Via Station, Earth-Luna Lagrange Point 1
30 August 2019
“Wow. What is that?”
“In it’s home timeline they call it an SR-1. Apparently it’s sort of a cross between a U-boat and a pocket space battleship.”
“Wow. Did we buy it or steal it?”
“Well, to be honest I wanted to steal one but they only made the one and it was kinda crewed by the local equivalent of a group of superheroes and we didn’t need that kind of tsuris, y’know? No, instead it turned out that a local terrorist group had already stolen the blueprints and since we were in their facility stealing all their shit anyway, well, why not right?”
“Aha, I see clearly now. So how many are we going to make?”
“Have to ask the brass about that, I’m just field personnel. From what the rumor mill is saying though, they’re probably not going to make too many, just enough to hopefully convince Mid-Childa to back off a little. Command’s a little touchy about the saucers we keep losing. Hell, I’m touchy about it; the Crimson Permanent Assurance was a good ship dammit, and losing it to those lunatic technomages seriously pissed me off.”
ETA: some more meta.
The Fiction Problem: One thing that needs addressing is the whole fiction problem. This isn’t a huge issue if we were going to keep this assigned to just plain alternate worlds, but obviously that’s… probably a non-starter. So, when (not if, but when) the Fen start visiting and meddling in other fictional worlds, how do we handle it?
Meta-omniscience is a story killer; it leads to characters who know everything and get more’n a little smug about it, which can be difficult to read even if you like the characters. So if fictional worlds get involved, what happens when Fen-Prime know about them? My honest opinion would be to rewrite Fen reality a little bit, so the list of popular fiction is different. Think of it like Drunkard’s Walk; would DW2 have been honestly as good if Doug had been sufficiently self-aware to *know* he’s in Bubblegum Crisis, for example?
So, for example if we travel to a Star Trek continuity the Fen would instead be big Galaxy Quest boosters, or the galaxy far far away that the Fen know more closely resembles the early drafts of Star Wars instead of the juggernaut we all know OOC. Various universes can be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, of course. It should depend on the story.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"